Assessments

I completed the math portion of the pre-matriculation assessments today. I had previously done the Excel assessment which was painful, much more so than I expected it to be. The test is largely trying to find out if you know the convoluted menu system of Excel 2007. So, if you are someone who’s been using Office 2003 for a long time and you get stuff done in ’07 largely with the help of “compatibility” shortcuts, the Excel assessment is a nightmare. I also noticed some differences between the Excel menus presented in the test and my version of ’07. Likely some version differences but not ideal for this type of assignment I think.

More embarrasingly, I managed to fail the calculus portion of the math assessment, ouch!

On my housing situation, unfortunately I’m still assigned to a Munger Studio, which is the most expensive of the housing options. I think I’ll try to transfer myself to an Escondido studio during first week of class through the reassignment process.

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Stanford GSB 360-Degree Feedback Assessment

Over the last couple of days, I’ve been reaching out to “raters” at work for my 360 degree feedback assessment. This is one of the required assignments for the GSB and is used in STRAMGT 207 – a first quarter Strategic Leadership class. The assessment has about 70 questions attempting to assess various skills and behaviors.

For example under “managing self” you have questions such as:

Publicly acknowledges own weaknesses when appropriate.

Recovers quickly from setbacks and frustrations.

Expresses emotions productively.

Struggles with change.

Lacks self-confidence.

Easily thwarted.

Takes responsibility for mistakes.

Expresses contrary opinions that benefit discussion.

I rated myself pretty low on my self assessment, can’t wait to see what all the raters think (the individual ratings are not shared, with only an average provided once school starts).

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Selecting a Notebook for Business School

Since I’ve seen a lot of my friends start looking for notebook computers recently, I thought I would publish my thoughts on what to look for when buying a notebook for business school. I’ll separate this into four categories: form factor, specifications, brand and value.

Form factor:

In my mind there are four that you can select from:

a) mini notebook / netbook (screens smaller than 12 inches – most common size is 10.1 inch)

b) portable (12 or 13 inch screens)

c) mainstream (14 or 15 inch screens)

d) multimedia / gaming / semi-portable (larger than 15 inches)

As a business school student, the possible uses could be taking the notebook to study group sessions and taking it while traveling (which MBAs do very frequently). This would basically remove option d) and leave the first three.

Based on my personal experience, the smallest screen size that you want to use as your “only” notebook is 12 (for some this will be no less than 13). The reason for this: a 10 inch screen doesn’t leave a lot of real estate for using things like large spreadsheets or opening multiple windows side by side to look at a document while editing another, etc. Also, 15 inch notebooks are also starting to stretch things in the opposite direction: not very comfortable for use on a plane, not as easy to carry around and the larger screen size will take a toll on battery life.

Something to keep in mind though is that you could potentially purchase a monitor and external keyboard and use these in conjunction with a netbook to get around the limitations of a small screen while still getting the benefits of portability. However, this will add around $200 to the cost of the system (bringing costs almost in line with mainstream notebooks), will give you something you will have to lug around if you move and even then you will have a system that will be barely enough to do the things you want it to do. For example, most mini notebooks do not come with DVD / optical drives. If you had to access something off a CD or a DVD for a class, you would have trouble doing so. Also, even the best netbook keyboards are cramped and offer less space than the full sized keyboards on larger notebooks.

I think a business school student should really limit there search to notebooks in the 12, 13 and 14 inch screen size. If you’ve never used a 12 inch notebook, limit it to 13 and 14 inch unless you can use a 12 incher for a lengthy period of time to make sure you are comfortable with it. A 13 inch notebook is the smallest size that will usually have a full sized keyboard (although there are some 12 inchers that have full sized keyboards too).

Specifications (June 2009)

Processor

Processors and computer specs change very quickly. Therefore what I say below will probably be outdated within just a few months. I will also limit this to the choices that most people will face, and exclude processor brands that are not as common.

Computer manufacturers love to quote speeds of processors in Ghz, a 2GHz notebook, a 2.4 GHz notebook etc. What they don’t want you to know is that even at a fixed frequency (2Ghz for example) Intel has a very broad spectrum of processors, some have lower cache sizes which affect performance, some have lower bus speeds, others work with older components so you will still be stuck with a subpar system.

For a business school student who travels frequently, battery life is important. I think having a notebook that can sit on your lap easily without heating up significantly is important as well.

Taking these considerations into account, I would recommend staying with an Intel Montevina P class processor. How will you recognize these processors? Look for the processor number that starts with a P: P7350, P8400, P8600, P9500, etc.

Ignore other labels such as centrino 2, core 2 duo etc. If you get a processor labeled as above, you’ll be fine.

The slowest of the processors above, the P7350 is still fast enough for most tasks and can handle a lot of multitasking. So don’t feel compelled to spend extra to get a faster processor. I haven’t seen many manufacturers adopt the P7350 so you might have to get a P8400 or a P8600 processor.

Memory

The amount of memory on the system has a huge impact on its performance, especially if like me you like to have a lot of windows open and switch between them. But this is also one of the components that most notebook manufacturers make a lot of money marking up.

It’s also something you can very easily upgrade yourself after purchasing: very easy to do.

The amount of memory I would recommend is 3GB to 4GB. But don’t buy this directly unless they are charging you very little for it. Currently at Newegg you can buy 2GB of memory for about $25 and 4GB for about $40.

Remember that most notebooks will have two slots to insert memory into. So if you buy a notebook that has 2GB of RAM and want to upgrade it, if they have used both slots of memory by using two 1GB memory “sticks”, you will have to discard one when you add your memory. Most manufacturers will let you pay a small premium to get the memory in 1 slot, so that you have the other one open to upgrade. So for example if you got 2GB in one slot, you can just buy another 2GB stick from newegg (www.newegg.com) for ~$25 (will probably be less by the time I hit publish!) you can upgrade to 4GB.

Hard Drive

At today’s costs I would say the minimum should be about 120GB. Most notebook manufacturers will give you 200+ GB as part of their standard configurations. In general a 7200 RPM drive will be faster than a 5400 RPM drive but it could also be a little noisier and warmer. I think the 5400 RPM drive is fine for most purposes.

Wireless Card

I recommend you buy a notebook that supports N wireless. This will typically be listed as “a/g/n wireless card”. Should be a low cost upgrade from the standard “b/g” card. This card will allow you to access faster N wireless networks once they become more popular at airports, coffee shops etc. If a manufacturer lets you get a WiMAX compatible card without paying a lot for it you should go for that.

Screen Resolution

Typically the 12 and 13 inch screens should have at least WXGA screen resolution. WXGA means that you will have 1280×800 pixels on the screens. If you are going for a 14 incher a wxga+ screen is a nice option although not absolutely necessary. WXGA+ gives you 1440×900 pixels on the screen, giving you more room for excel spreadsheets and the like.

Battery

Don’t go for anything less than 6 cells. Usually manufacturers will also offer 9 cells, on most small notebooks this will extend a little way out of the notebook body but give you better battery life. A 6 cell should be fine for most purposes.

Optical Drive

Go with the DVD burner or DVD – RW drive.

Wireless Broadband Card

If the manufacturer you’ve chosen allows you to have wireless mobile broadband built-in, this is an option you could consider. If you don’t plan to subscribe to a wireless data plan, this will not really do anything. These plans typically cost $60+ per month and provide access to data from anywhere that the selected cell phone provider has data coverage.

You could do things like check your email, connect to the library or read news while you are commuting. I think for students who will spend most of their time in areas that have wifi coverage the $60+ a month is not really worth it. However if the notebook manufacturer allows you to get mobile broadband built in for a small cost you can select this (small cost being $0-$80 or so) and have the option of subscribing to a mobile broadband plan on a future date. Verizon and Sprint have the best data coverage in the US. I would select one of these. Sprint I believe has cheaper data plans and also allows no contract plans through companies like Millenicom (www.millenicom.com) which makes it a good choice. AT&T has terrible data coverage and is currently suffering from a deluge of iPhones on to their network so I would stay away from them as a mobile broadband provider. Remember you can always get a USB adapter and get mobile broadband on a later date, so don’t worry about this option too much.

Ports

An HDMI port or Displayport is nice to have. This will allow you to connect your notebook to a TV easily using an HDMI cable and do things like presentations, watch netflix movies, watch TV etc through your television but using your computer. Displayport has a small adapter that costs about $10 that lets you connect it to most digital video formats. These ports are very convenient because they let you transmit a high quality signal while the cable carries Audio as well so you don’t need to connect multiple cables. I love being able to watch movies from netflix from my computer through HDMI.

Operating System

If you are a current MAC user then you will likely be going for one of the new macbooks with Snow Leopard installed.

For those of us who are PC users, any system purchased after June 26th with Windows Vista Home Premium or above will qualify for a free upgrade to Windows 7 (which I hear should be very good). So don’t buy a system that has Windows Vista basic. If you can get one that is labeled Windows Vista Business – XP Downgrade, that means you will get Windows XP installed but a Vista license as well so that you can change to Vista if you wanted to.

Other Options

Manufacturers will give you a lot of other options like backlit keyboards, built-in webcams, etc.

The only one I think is pretty useful to have is the built-in webcam. The back-lit keyboard is a cool extra but not a necessity.

Brand

In selecting a brand, you should stick to a name that will give you a good low cost warranty. Notebook computers are not easy to fix if you have problems. Over say a 3 year time frame you could run into problems that make you wish you had a warranty. Most businessess use Dell or Lenovo (Thinkpad) because their business notebook lines are known for reliability and good support. The problem there is that business class notebooks will also cost quite a bit.

For most non Apple users: you will really be selecting between Dell, Lenovo and HP. If you are going with a business class notebook you will be choosing between a Thinkpad T series and Dell’s Latitude E line. With the sale to Lenovo, Thinkpads are not the premium brand that they used to be and can actually be had for almost the same price if not cheaper than Latitudes. The advantage with Dell’s business notebooks is that they all come with a solid 3 year warranty.

I would stay away from the bottom of the line home models like the Dell Inspiron which are relatively bulky and heavy and not as reliable.  The same goes to Lenovo’s Ideapad series.

Try to get a hold of a couple of notebooks and see what feels right for you. Talk to students you know and ask them about their experiences with warranty and service. I personally can say that Dell definitely stands behind their notebook if you have a warranty.

Get a notebook with at least a 2 year warranty on it: yes I know this will add to the cost but I think its worth it.

Value

Check if your school has good deals with a certain notebook manufacturer. For example http://www.dell.com/”your school name” will typically take you to the dell page customized for your school. Note that this doesn’t always work and Dell is notorious for sometimes having more expensive prices in their “discounted” sections than available for general consumers. So check prices from a number of sources before buying. Dell will sometimes have one price through dell.com/smallbusiness and another if you just go through dell.com.

Lenovo has a shareholder discount program which you can register for online.

Sites like Logicbuy compile the deals out there and allow users to vote on what the best are here: http://www.logicbuy.com/subcategorydeals/13/Computers/35/Laptops.aspx?order=hottest

This could be a possible starting point.

If you read this and disagree with any of my recommendations please add a comment below to let me know.

Picture: Dell’s E Series Latitude.

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Kindle DX Shipping June 10th!

It’s official, the Kindle DX (or the newspaper / textbook kindle) is shipping on the 10th of June, at least mine is. I just received an email from Amazon that my delivery date changed from some time during the summer to June 11th.

We now have delivery date(s) for the order you placed on May 06 2009 (Order# 102-2084715-XXXXXXX):

“Kindle DX: Amazon’s 9.7″ Wireless Reading Device (Latest
Generation)” [Electronics]
Estimated arrival date: June 11 2009

Could this have been spurred by recent announcements of competitors like the Cool-er Reader? I think it could be. When Amazon said Summer ’09, I didn’t expect it to be this soon. What could be a bigger factor is Google’s announcement today of wanting to get into the digital publishing business. Amazon has a leg-up by getting into this first but its not insurmountable I think. Especially for someone like Google who could throw a lot of content into the picture.

Anyway, I’m excited!!

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Kindle DX Perfect for Business School Students

Amazon announced the new Kindle DX just about a week ago. There’s been a lot of talk in the blogosphere and in traditional media about whether the Kindle DX works for students. Most of the feedback has been something along the lines of: its too expensive, students resell textbooks – can’t do that on the Kindle (yet), no sharing of books, etc. Others have said no Color will limit the applications as a textbook reader.

The facts: there are no color readers coming out until at least late 2010 (or more likely sometime in 2011, if everything goes well). Therefore, if you are holding off on buying a Kindle DX because you need a reader in color, you will be waiting for a while.

Now for business schools specifically, why do I think the Kindle DX works very well?

1 ) Most business school textbooks are not overly reliant on Color – therefore a large portion if not all major textbooks will translate very easily to Kindle format: I expect most books to be available right at launch. This may also be backed by the fact that Darden was picked as one of the few schools piloting the reader in the fall.

2 ) Business school texts are expensive! – this will mean that the discount for the electronic versions of the books (in most cases in excess of 50%), will be particularly attractrive. B-school students buying the Kindle DX should see a pretty quick payback on the device based on these discounts.

3 ) Business school students tend to hang on to their textbooks. These books become a valuable resource to students after completing school. Therefore, the economics mentioned at the top from reselling, don’t apply as much here. This is a big plus since the Kindle DX allows you to keep a personal library of 3,300 textbooks in your hand at any time. In addition to this, Amazon will archive all your purchases in case you want to remove it from the device for additional space.

4 ) Case Studies: regardless of whether your school employs a teaching method that involves a large percentage of cases or a smaller percentage, MBA students will always run into a significant number of case studies that are good reference materials. The built in PDF reader on the new DX allows you to carry around thousands of cases and quickly access them with no unsightly piles of printed paper to lug around.

5 ) Homework/study groups: Study documents, papers, worksheets can easily be carried around for study group meetings, also works well for carrying around an email that you would otherwise have to print to take with you.

6 ) Business school students travel a lot: For travellers the Kindle DX is a great way to carry all of your books, cases, texts, reference material in a very small form factor, to read on planes, trains etc. This is a big plus and makes it particularly relavent for MBAs.

7 ) B School texts are huge (like most other textbooks): which translates easily into the Kindle format where you carry one .3 inch Kindle instead of a bunch of 2-3 inch textbooks.

8 ) Instant access to books: if someone in class or anywhere else mentions an interesting book to you, you don’t have to write the title down and look it up later, take out the kindle and buy it immediately with instant delivery over Whispernet. This will mean you will read a lot more books and some books also have their first chapter available as a free preview, you can take a look before you commit to buy. The wireless delivery works almost anywhere that Sprint has coverage, at no cost to you. The purchase cost includes the wireless access charges.

9 ) Not as big a plus but for b-school students who subscribe to the Wall Street Journal or other newspapers, the Kindle DX provides a perfect viewer for it. Every morning students can wake up to find the morning news delivered automatically to the Kindle.

10 ) Free wireless broadband access to a browser, this is not a huge plus since the browser included in the kindle is primitive but its still a good tool to quickly check your e-mail from class, and the browser software will only be improved over time.

To address a couple of other commonly mentioned cons for the Kindle DX:

1 ) It’s too expensive:  In the context of the cost of textbooks and materials for business school and more generally the cost of an MBA, the cost of the Kindle DX ($489) is really not that much. Based on your book buying and textbook buying habits, you will likely make back this cost over a period of 6 months to 2 years.

2 ) You could buy a $3xx Netbook and do everything a Kindle does and more: This is just not true. The reason that the Kindle costs $489 to make and the reason why its so popular is the e-ink screen. This is a technology that recreates the paper reading experience almost identically. There is no back-light, there is no glare and provides a perfect paper like experience. Yes, you can do a lot of other things on a Netbook but it is not convenient and does not provide a good reading experience for books.

3 ) I’m going to wait for a competing reader (Plastic Logic, Sony, etc): The reader is nifty hardware, true. However, the success of a device like this, early on, is heavily dependent on the content available to it. Amazon has put all its muscle behind the Kindle with 275,000+ books already available for it. Unlike the 0.5 + million available for the Sony reader, most of the Kindle books are popular current books, not free/public domain books.  Therefore the Kindle is the one to get, at least from how the landscape looks right now. The other big advantage is the instant wireless delivery via Whispernet mentioned above, which is not available through any other competing device.

4 ) I need to see my textbooks in color: As mentioned above, unfortunately technology to support color e-ink is pretty far away. Optimistic forecasts put the technology as ready next year, but most likely will be 2011 at least.

To sum it up, I think the Kindle DX is perfect for business school students. If you agree or disagree, I would love to know why, please leave a comment below.

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More Admit Weekend Thoughts and Impressions

Writing this in response to PaloAltoforaWhile‘s comment on my Admit Weekend Update:  >> Hey Sri Lankan – Would love to hear more about your overall impressions about other admits, students, style of the weekend. Are you more/less excited about Stanford next year? Did the weekend get you excited about certain classes, activities, opportunities?

PaloAltofoaWhile, thanks for asking this. Hopefully a better update of my impressions of the admit weekend, below.

Overall Impression

I think the best way to sum it up is to say that I felt like I was joining a big family. A really close-knit community held together by the GSB’s unique down to earth and friendly culture.

Admits / Students

Although admits had not spent a lot of time at the GSB prior to the weekend, they were either screened very carefully during the interview process (for the ingredients that do best in the GSB) or took on the GSB culture very quickly. Everyone was super friendly, outgoing and there to make friends with everyone else in the class. When Derrick went through the profiles of some of the admits in the class it was definitely very humbling, admits who’ve started multiple successful companies, those who couldn’t be at the weekend because they are playing pivotal roles in the auto bailouts, submarine officers, bodyboarders, international consultants, successful traders, hybrid vehicle engineers, etc.

The common factor among those I met was that noone was looking to talk about their credentials or their backgrounds, they were all very down to earth and friendly, and eager to be a part of the GSB family.

Students: I didn’t really get to meet a lot of students except for the Q&A sessions on housing, leadership, global initiatives etc. Among those  I met the easiest way to describe them is as really nice people. They were all very welcoming and I think great ambassadors of the Stanford GSB brand.

I think there was definitely an unusual mix of student and admit backgrounds, and probably fewer finance related backgrounds (than I expected).

Style of the Weekend

I think the weekend was organized around the theme that the fellow admits are the biggest selling point for the program. I think this worked very well although I was already sold. Every event, every meal was aimed at having each admit meet a new mix of people. There was no chance to stick with just a small group as you would meet a new group for the next hour, which was perfect.

I think the other theme was to convey the close knit community and family like feel at the GSB. This came through very well as well I think, from the hug that the first year student gave each admit and SO that she was hosting for dinner to the warm welcoming words and smiles from staff, students and alums and the words of support from the audience to student speakers at each event.

The Navy submarine officer (2nd year student) who spoke talked about his friendship with one of the three GSB students who died in an accident in Big Sur last year. He had just come from a swimming event that morning in honor of those students and was visibly in tears as he spoke about his feelings and the support he had received at the GSB when he lost his friend.

Lynn Utter the alumni speaker spoke of the GSB network as similar to the phone ads where theres an invisible group of people always behind you (referring to Verizon).

Excited about certain classes, activities, opportunities?

I think the most exciting for me were the global travel opportunities, the study trips and service learning trips. It was amazing to hear about the experiences of students and I think something that I had not thought about previously was organizing a trip myself. Since the weekend, I’ve been thinking quite a bit about organizing a trip to Sri Lanka for second year, assuming things quieten down in the next few months some more.

The opportunities to meet with entrepreneurs regularly, with VCs in the area etc were also definitely a big plus that was highlighted during my talks with students heading up student clubs.

More/less excited about Stanford next year?

Definitely much more excited than I was. I knew Stanford was the place that I wanted to be for the two years of my MBA before I left for the weekend, but I think the weekend really made me fall in love with the place, the culture and the people.

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Admit Weekend Update

I know I haven’t given the promised admit weekend update, although its been more than a week since I got back from a fun (and busy) weekend in Palo Alto.  The biggest reason for this was my move.  I decided to not use movers and move most of my stuff myself: bad idea. The whole thing took almost four days not counting the two days it took to recover from it all.

I’ve been kind of lazy with this update and I’ve copied and pasted a lot of information right from the admit weekend schedule.

6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. Welcome Reception
Schwab Residential Center, Palm Courtyard

After almost a full day of flying, I landed in SFO and realized that I should probably have followed the advice from the admissions office and brought some warm clothing along. It was cold, especially for me coming in from Miami.  My flight was delayed as well and after some driving around I decided that the Macy’s at the Stanford shopping center is the place to grab a coat from.  After walking all over I finally realized that the store was split into mens and womens building (pretty far from each other) and that I was looking in the womens!

In the end, I finally managed to find something reasonable and arrived almost an hour late at Schwab.

Everyone at the check-in desks was very friendly, finding a T-shirt for my wife. Love the T-shirts btw: they say “I got the Call” on the back.

I grabbed a drink and walked around meeting fellow admits, saying Hi to Derrick and meeting up with a group of Sri Lankans at Stanford who came there to welcome me.

7:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. Small Group Dinners
Restaurant close to El Camino
The first year student who was in charge of the small group dinner I was assigned to was very friendly and nice, welcoming each member of the group warmly and ushering us and all the SOs (Stanford speak for spouses – Significant Others) to dinner at the restaurant nearby.

Dinner was great and we heard about the diverse backgrounds of each person at the table, about the workload (which the first year said wasn’t too bad at all) and about what everyone wanted to do over the summer. My plan of sticking around home and visiting my sister were definitely the least interesting.

9:30 p.m. – 11:30 p.m. Unofficial Gathering
Old Pro, Palo Alto
By the time we got out of dinner it was close to 1:30 East coast time and I was way too tired to go over to Old Pro. I heard from those who made it over there that the place really came alive around midnight or so.

Sunday, 26 April 2009.

9:45 – 11:00 a.m. Off-Campus Housing Tours

Off-Campus
I had planned to do the off-campus housing tours but it turned out this was way too early on Sunday morning for me.

11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. Welcome Brunch
Schwab Residential Center, Vidalakis Dining Hall
Dean Joss and Derrick Bolton gave excellent speeches.  Derrick touched on the backgrounds of various members of the class of 2011 without mentioning any by name. The diversity of experiences among the group was amazing and very humbling. At each event, groups were re-assigned so that you met 5 or 6 new people at each table.

1:15 p.m. – 2:15 p.m. MBA Curriculum Overview
GSB South Building, Bishop Auditorium
Professor Garth Saloner was supposed to do this but was not available, therefore it was done by David Kreps (A Econ professor at the GSB). Went over the flexibility, assigned advisors, grading etc.

1:15 p.m. – 2:15 p.m. SO Job Search Discussion
GSB South, Room S161
My wife attended and thought there was useful information shared. At some point during the weekend she decided that Stanford is a community she likes and that she will be joining me (eventually :)).

2:15 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. Study Group Meeting
Jackson Library Study Rooms
Cases were distributed (I think four different cases) prior to the weekend. I was assigned to the Vocera case. There were rooms labeled with study group numbers. We had an interesting discussion with some members of the group very passionate about their views. The first few minutes we were not quite sure what we should do, so just ended up chatting with fellow admits.

2:20 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. SO Hike to “the Dish”
GSB South, Meet at the Birds Courtyard
My wife joined other SOs and students for a three mile / five kilometer hike to one of Stanford’s landmarks. My wife made several friends and really liked the experience.

3:15 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Afternoon Refreshment Break
GSB South Building, Birds Courtyard

3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Class Immersion Experience
GSB South Building
My study group was assigned to Vocera which Jim Lattin, Robert A. Magowan Professor of Marketing conducted. It was an excellent class with a lot of cold calling. Everyone was given name placards to place in front of them. I was glad to not be one of those cold called. The discussion concluded in a direction that was completely unexpected based on our thoughts from the study group.

4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. Housing Panel and Video
GSB South Building, Bishop Auditorium
Very funny video with GSB students based on MTV’s cribs going through each housing choice: Schwab, Escondido Village, Munger, and off-campus. Basically Schwab is the social place, although not anywhere near as nice or fancy as Munger. Escondido is just ok, but that’s where you have to live if you have a family. Munger came across as really really nice. Loved the dual refrigerators, that can be opened simultaneously! 🙂

5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Housing Tour
Schwab, Escondido Village or Munger
I chose the Munger tour since I had a pretty clear idea of what Schwab was like. There’s still a lot of construction going on at Munger but most of it is expected to be done in the Fall. The 4/4.5 layout at Munger is really nice. A lot of common area, decent sized rooms, etc. I think a lot of admits moved Munger up on there list after the tour.

7:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. Alumni Dinner
Schwab Residential Center, Vidalakis Dining Hall
Lynn Utter, President and COO of Knoll North America gave an inspirational and moving speech. There were two other student speakers who were exceptional.

9:30 p.m. – 11:00 p.m. Social Gathering with the GSB Family
Blue Chalk, Palo Alto, 650.326.1020
There were shuttles to take us over the the Blue Chalk ready after dinner. A lot of socializing and meeting people with a lot of current students as well.

Monday, 27 April 2009

8:45 a.m. – 9:15 a.m. Financial Aid for International Students
GSB South Building, S161
I didn’t attend as I qualify for aid as a US resident but there were many worried faces after this. I heard the rates on the no-cosigner loan options were really high.

9:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. Breakfast at the Birds
GSB South Building, Birds Courtyard
Grabbed some quick breakfast and coffe and ran into the next event at Bishop auditorium.

9:30 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. Managing Your Career
GSB South Building, Bishop Auditorium
The Career Management Center (CMC) Director Andy Chan gave an introduction to the internship and job hunt and the resources available at the school. The personal attention that the CMC seems to give each student was a highlight. There were several students available to answer questions and discuss how they found their internship / job options.

10:50 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. Global Experience Requirement Student Panel
GSB South Building, Bishop Auditorium
Several current students discussed Global Study Trips, GMIX internships, STEP, SAIL and Service Learning Trips. Everyone had great things to say about the requirement and seemed to have had wonderful experiences. Dancing in Brazil, private jets in India, etc..

11:45 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. Barbeque, Across the Street and Club Expo
GSB, Plaza Courtyard
Many of the GSB clubs had desks and provided information about their activities. I think because of GSB’s Exclusive Academic Period (EAP), a lot of the real recruiting for clubs doesn’t happen until a few weeks into the term. This was just an informal gathering.

1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. Leadership Development
GSB South Building, Bishop Auditorium
Student led discussion about several of the leadership development resources available. There seemed to be a lot of focus on leadership fellows.

2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Campus Tour

I missed the last couple of events of the day (below) as I had a flight to catch and ran off early.

3:10 p.m. – 3:45 p.m. Final Remarks
GSB South Building, Bishop Auditorium

3:45 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Class of 2011 Celebration
GSB South Building, Front Steps

Overall it was an excellent weekend that really highlighted the diversity of the class and the friendliness and close knit community offered by the GSB.

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Selling Furniture on Craigslist

I had to share some of the hilarious emails I’ve been getting from scam artists on Craigslist in response to my postings. I gave the FBI Internet Crime Division Contact Name, Address and Phone Number in Miami and asked them to go ahead and send the check to that address.

Example email 1 (from Carl Peter: carlpeter2008@gmail.com):

Thanks for the mail,I appreciate your response to my inquiry. I really want to buy this furniture from you. I would love to come and check it  my self but I just got married and I’m presently on honeymoon,am okay with the price  and will like to tell you that am paying via chasier check or money oder and also make arrangement with the shiping company for the pick up.i will like you to get back to me with your full names and address for me to mail out the payment to you.

PLEASE NOTE……The payment i will be sending will be of  excess this you will give to the shiping company for the pick up when they contact you.all you need to do is to get the money verified and faithfully deduct your own money and send the balance to the shipping company .The shiping company will contact you as soon as you receive the payment.please let me know if this sounds good to you.i will be waiting to read from you soon.And the payment will get to you as soon as possible.

Thanks
You are blessed

Example Email 2 (from Ona Warley: banjowharley003@gmail.com)

Hello,
Thanks for the quick response and i am interested in the item you
advertised because I like the condition you stated about it and I will
like to make an outright purchase immediately so I will want you
withdraw the advert from the web.
Regarding the payment term,I can only for now pay you with a
certified check in U.S. dollars,so pls let me have the following
informations so that the payment can be made to you :
1.Your full name to be on the check.
2.Your postal address.
3.Your postal code
4.Your mobile phone number (For easier communications).
Kindly get me the above requested information as soon as
possible. Concerning the shipment,it is my regular mover that will
come for the pick up as soon as you receive your money in hands.
Thanks in Advance.
Regards

Editing the article to add some more scammer email addresses:

Scammers Hall of Shame:

anthony smith: anthony_smith001@live.com

smith taylor: smithlord101@gmail.com

Nelson Brown: nelson_brwn05@yahoo.com

Matthew Lee: matthewlee10026@gmail.com

Tony Randy: tonyhandy19@gmail.com

Pop Lawra: poplawra@gmail.com

Ona Warley: banjowharley003@gmail.com

Carl Peter: carlpeter2008@gmail.com

grodwell dennis: gdennis75@googlemail.com

Quote from “Nelson Brown”: Hey,  just surf through the ads you have on here on craigslist and it’s actually what i wanna buy. I will like to purchase these item from you, hope it’s still available for sale… I would have demanded for your phone number so as to call you but i am a deaf person, either way it goes, i am always online so you can email me back.

Quote from Tony Randy: Thanks,i don’t think i really need any more picture,i only wanted to know the interest of the seller,i am just moving into my new apartment and i would want to retain this item while am away so i`ll send a draft from my bank to cover the cost as i am satisfied with what i have seen so far,anyway,i will not be available for the  pick up due to my job transfer and my tight schedule,but my intention is to hire a mover to pick it up.
i will need the details of whom and where to mail the draft.it would be delivered through the United Parcel Service(UPS)within 2-3 days.
NB:UPS do not deliver to p.o box addresses.

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Admit Weekend Homework

The Admit weekend homework assignment has just arrived.  The reading is for the Class Immersion Experience which will be an “interactive class” in Marketing taught by Prof.  Jim Lattin. The class immersion is basically an enhanced  class visit. There are no regular classes that prospective students can sit in on during admit weekend.

Reading involves a case titled Vocera Communications (32 page document).

There’s also a 35 page optional reading assignment related to the case from The Complete Guide to Accelerating Sales  Force Performance (the first chapter).

Prof. Lattin has taught the introductory marketing class for first-years for the last 20 years. This should be very interesting I think.

There are also study groups assigned! We find these assignments on the first day of the admit weekend. Cold calls are promised as well!

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Financial Aid Part 2

As expected the selective service stuff has become a bit of headache. Hmm

I didn’t become a resident until after my 26th birthday so I am exempt, however, I’m sure I’ll have to do a lot of work to prove it.

Note from the FinAid office:

The Selective Service reported that you have not registered with them. If you have not yet registered, please complete a Selective Service registration form at your local post office, or register online at www.sss.gov. If you believe you have already registered or are exempt, please contact the Selective Service at 847-688-6888.

The law provides that a person demonstrating by a preponderance of evidence that his failure to register was not knowing and willful, may receive federal student aid.  A non-registrant student seeking federal student aid must contact to the Selective Service to obtain a Status Information Letter addressing his failure to register.  The Selective Service provides a Request for Status Information Letter form on their website (www.sss.gov <http://www.sss.gov>).  The form requests that the student should provide a complete reason with any supporting documentation why his failure was not knowing and willful (e.g., where he was living during this period when he should have registered or his citizenship status during this period of time, if applicable).  A Status Information Letter by the Selective Service is sent within 4 to 6 weeks.

The GSB would request that you send a copy of the Status Information Letter from the Selective Service to the Financial Aid Office.  In addition, we request that you send an explanation and any supporting documentation that your failure was not knowing and willful.  Once this information is reviewed, the Financial Aid Office will notify you if you may receive federal student aid. Otherwise, please contact the Selective Service office to register for the draft or to obtain a letter of exemption. We will need this completed before federal aid can be disbursed.

Four to six weeks!

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